


Shadow of the Valley

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Shadows and Ice On a Dying Planet [1]
Category: Highlander
Genre: Community: hlh_shortcuts, Future Fic, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-28
Updated: 2010-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-14 04:30:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winter winds were more dangerous on this new planet he'd chosen to run to than those back on Earth. Or rather, what they brought with them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadow of the Valley

**Author's Note:**

  * For [keerawa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/keerawa/gifts).



Methos rather thought that the frustration of hiding his Immortality on the long journey out to the first new planet was worth being the first Immortal to see what was out there. To step out under an alien sky, looking up at stars no other Immortal looked at from this perspective, to work with plants that weren't the familiar ones of Earth, to tame strange new creatures to his hand.

He stepped out of the small cabin he'd built on the new planet, leaning against the railing of the porch as he looked over the little valley he'd laid claim to. For all the strangeness, it was familiar, in a way Earth hadn't entirely been in centuries. Simple, peaceful, and all his own.

A soft snort escaped him, and he eyed the pass the cabin overlooked, the narrow canyon carved by the stream flowing through his valley the only way in that most people bothered to look for. Soon he'd have to deal with at least one other person invading his peace and quiet, with the wintermelt having worked its way down to the fertile plains most of the settlers lived on. Even here he couldn't escape the Watchers.

Shaking his head, he turned back to go inside for a moment. That she knew he was Immortal merely meant that she would be back looking for him instead of bones stripped clean. This time.

~ ~~ ~

_Looking up from the pot he had over the fire when the door opened, Methos gave Sarah a welcoming grin. Winters in the mountains were always longer than on plains like most of the settlers were on, and more so the higher you went. He didn't think there was anyone who'd decided on a valley as remote as the one he'd all but fallen in love with._

_The shock on her face made his smile fade into a frown, and he stood, leaving the pot where it was for now. The stew wouldn't be harmed by a few minutes being left to itself._

_"Sarah? What is it?"_

_She didn't say anything, just launched herself across the room, thudding against him, arms wrapping tight around him for a long moment. Both of his eyebrows went up, and he reached up to stroke her hair a moment. The Watcher hadn't appeared the sort to welcome much physical contact, not since she was a child on the ships, and he wondered what would get her so... clingy._

_Prying her loose, Methos met her gaze a long moment. "What happened, Sarah?"_

_"You're alive," she whispered, before taking a deep breath, stepping away as color rose in her cheeks. "I don't know why I expected anything else, except that I must not have been thinking clearly."_

_"Why would you think I was dead?" Methos crossed his arms with a deep frown, watching her as she began to pace, agitation clear on her face. There were three families in the valleys before his, strung out along the stream that fed into the river the main settlement was on. "How are the others doing?"_

_"They're all dead, Adam." Sarah looked over at him. "Every last one of them. There's nothing left but bones."_

~ ~~ ~

He carefully scraped back the coals, nestling the heavy pot among them, scooping them back around and on top of it once he was certain it was stready. This sort of life wasn't his favorite, but it was better than answering questions about why he didn't age to the mortals, especially after the deaths last winter.

Deaths that made no sense, even after he'd gone to investigate. Methos grimaced, leaving the fish and tubers to cook, going to pull the journal and collection of photos Sarah had taken down from the shelf again, spreading them over the table to study once more. He'd even gone down to stay in one of the other cabins - what was left of it - during the early part of the winter, before the pass closed completely.

Nothing but the snow and the constant howling of the wind that he'd gotten used to the first winter. It sounded more like the shrieks of something dying in there than it did here, but it was still only wind. He'd had more trouble getting back to his own cabin when he'd decided to return, nearly left himself an icicle for the duration when he'd been traversing the pass and slipped from the path.

Perhaps he'd take some time this summer to make sure the cabin in the next valley was in better repair, and spend the entire winter there. Methos grimaced, picking up the first of the photos to study more closely again. The bones weren't scattered, like one would expect from animals. They didn't even bear tooth marks on them, just the dark patina of the flesh around them decaying.

Like they'd been killed and left to rot, if it weren't for the icy cold of winter, which should have retarded the decay. Winter weather that should have easily gotten into the cabins, with the doors torn off their hinges.

He looked up at a knock on the door that was followed by Sarah stepping inside, a brief smile touching her face at seeing him.

"Did you see anything while you were in the next valley this winter?" She glanced at the photos and notes spread over the table, a faint flicker of hope crossing her face before he shook his head.

"Nothing but snow and the wind." Methos sighed irritably, stacking the photos up once more.

"There's talk of moving the settlement further down the river, closer to the sea." Sarah sat on the bench in the window, watching him as he moved. "There were more dead this winter, some of the outlying groups higher in the hills. Just like the families in the valleys last winter. People are afraid."

And when people were afraid, they did stupid things. Like blame the person who brought the bad news. Or visited those who died, but didn't end up dead themselves.

"Is it safe for you to return to the main settlement?" He put the journal and photos back, watching the expression on her face as she answered.

Sarah shrugged, a faint frown crossing her face. "I shouldn't have any trouble."

"Famous last words." Methos scraped coals away from the pot, checking the food.

~ ~~ ~

_"You're going to be living on a ship for years, Methos. Most of a century. Someone's going to notice." Amanda was watching him with a concerned expression on her face. "Why are you doing this? "_

_"It's new, and I haven't been a pioneer in centuries." Methos took a sip of his beer, privately musing that this was something he'd miss until he could get something decent brewed on the new planet._

_"You could wait a century, and they'll have a faster ship. Less risk of discovery, and you'll still get to pioneer some new planet somewhere." Amanda leaned forward, reaching out a hand, her frown deepening a moment._

_"I've already made sure of my place on the ship, Amanda." Methos set his beer down, rolling the bottle around on its base a moment. "There are ways to hide my lack of aging, and there will be Watchers on the ship as well. I'll be fine."_

~ ~~ ~

"Would you like some beer?" Methos looked over at Sarah as they hiked back towards his house across the fields of the small valley.

She gave him a startled look. "You didn't mention you were going to do a brew when I left last summer. I take it the barley yielded well?"

"Better than expected." Methos shrugged, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Enough for beer to last this year. Might have enough to send some beer to the settlement next spring from the harvest this year."

"Then I ought to sample this brew of yours, see what you'll have to bring with you."

"I thought I'd send it with you, rather than risk questions about why I haven't aged a day, or lived where everyone else has died." He looked over at her, watching the expression on her face. "You know what could happen if they decided I was the cause of all this."

"Yes." Sarah sighed, folding her arms across her chest, a troubled frown on her face. "They wouldn't understand how much of a loss it would be to lose all those centuries of knowledge in your head."

"No more than the knowledge the rest of them have, collectively." Methos had forgotten more than they knew about the old ways of farming, of surviving without the technology that they depended on. "If you're worried that you wouldn't be safe on your own going back, you can stay here."

"I don't know if I should." Sarah rubbed her arms a moment, sliding him a sideways look. "We don't even know why whatever killed them missed you. If I'm here, it could come after you this time."

"You're not the reason they died, Sarah." Methos waved for her to proceed him up the steps to the house. "We don't know what killed them."

"Demons? I mean, you said the wind was blowing all the time, and just..." Sarah shrugged, and sighed. "I don't know. Dad told stories that he'd heard from his grandad about some demon back on Earth that was fought by Immortal champions. It came to mind, that's all. I don't even know why."

"Let's hope it's not something like that." Methos didn't want to think about demons being the cause of this - he had enough metaphorical demons without encountering any real ones. "I'm not some boyscout like the Highlander."

~ ~~ ~

"There's no way to repair the generator without going back to the settlement for parts." Sarah sat back on her heels, giving Methos an apologetic look. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be." Methos shrugged, looking up at the ceiling in the main room of the cabin, wondering if he could safely cut a smoke hole in it. "We can build a fire to keep it warm, and cook meals."

"And the smoke would go where?" Sarah pushed up onto her feet, following his gaze to the roof overhead as she stepped from the lean-to shed that held the generator. "We'd have to cut around the main beams, and it couldn't be left entirely uncovered. Snow would get in and put out a fire if we did a smoke hole like that."

With the draw of the constant winter wind, they wouldn't even need a particularly large smoke hole, though even then it would be a bit smokey in the cabin. Better than freezing in the depths of winter, though.

"You're staying, then." Methos looked over at her, and Sarah shrugged.

"If I die, I die. Dennis has the diaries and the earlier chronicles. It's not as if the records are going to vanish if I'm not around." She gave him a brief smile. "And I want to know what these things are, and why they didn't come after you."

~ ~~ ~

The winds started with the first snow, whipping around the little cabin, eerie shrieks announcing the setting of the sun every night. Sarah huddled near the fire, her face white as the snow outside, eyes wide and dark with fear, unable to sleep at night. Methos prowled the perimeter of the cabin, peering out into the dark, waiting for whatever it was to come closer.

Three long months of snow and howls, worrying about Sarah's sanity and his own patience passed before he caught his first glimpse of them. Driven by hunger and desperation, like starving wolves, they circled closer. Pale and leaving him with the impression of fur and teeth and nothing more. No eyes to gleam in the light of the fire, no ears pricked up to listen for him, barely legs and feet to carry them.

A shriek closer than before alerted him before they came crashing against the door, the sturdy wood shuddering under the steady assult of body after body. Methos checked his gun again, hoping that bullets would stop them. Behind him, Sarah let out a hiss of fear, pressing close against his back.

"We know why they didn't come after me last winter, at least." Methos had to raise his voice a little to be heard over the nerve-wracking sounds of the beasts, turning his head enough to glance at Sarah out of the corner of his eye.

"Not desperate enough." Sarah let out a shakey laugh, the sound just shy of hysteria. "Or maybe it's not you they're after."

"It doesn't matter now." He raised the gun as the latch on the door cracked, the wood scraping across the floor as the first of them burst into the room, bringing with it the cold and the swirling wind. The shriek sounded shriller now, like some small child whose just been given the present they always wanted.

They weren't any more impressive in appearence in the flickering light of the fire than they'd been through the snow, all dense fur and strange movement and nothing resembling the eyes and ears and limbs that he expected. Like nothing else he'd seen on this planet, either, and Methos kept his gun raised as the things paused at the door, their shrieks dying off a bit as they paused.

His instincts were too well honed to wait for them to move, and he fired at one of them, hoping that it would be a fatal shot, or at least an incapacitating one. There was nothing to suggest where the head was, or where they kept heart or brain. Like nothing more than balls of fluff that wouldn't look dangerous if it weren't for the constant sound that scraped nerves raw.

Sound that rose in pitch as the others converged on the wounded one, swarming over it, the fur darkened and dampened in a blue-violet shade that was less strange than the rest of it, like the blood of a lobster or shrimp. Well, perhaps just as strange in a terrestrial creature, but Methos wasn't going to devote much thought to that right now.

It wasn't long before the pile dissolved out into individual balls again, leaving nothing of the wounded one but dark bones that Methos made note to collect later. At least then they'd have something of the creatures to look at. And it explained why the bones were all that were left of the settlers. Though how they'd known where to find the settlers, how they hunted without anything he could see for eyes or ears or even a nose...

Methos shook his head, carefully shooting several more of the beasts, the ones closest to the door. Behind him, Sarah whimpered as he stepped away, approaching the creatures. They shied away from him, the shrieks dying to whines as he loomed over them. Like they were pleading for him not to kill them all. Trying to survive.

He pitched the corpses out into the snow as far as he could, watching as the rest chased out after them, closing the door as best he could behind them. It took both him and Sarah to pull enough over for them to feel the barricade would hold, before they curled up near the fire. All they had to do now was survive until spring.

**Author's Note:**

> I am aware that at the end there may be questions of "What happens next?". To which the answer is that what happens next is another story that will be finished eventually.


End file.
